Thursday newspaper round-up: Skipton, British Airways, HSBC

21st Jan 2010 06:05

Tens of thousands of homeowners are facing an extra £2,000 interest on their mortgages every year after Skipton Building Society tore up its contract with customers, blaming the "exceptional circumstances" caused by the credit crunch. Letters are being sent to 29,000 of the mutual's 100,000 mortgage customers today to explain why Skipton felt the need to trigger the "exceptional circumstances" clause, which has been written into contracts since 2002. Another 35,000 customers will also be affected in the coming months, says the Telegraph.As many as 1,400 jobs at one of Britain's largest oil refineries are under threat after Chevron said last night that it was planning a restructuring that would involve sweeping cuts across its global refining operation, writes the Times.British Airways' cabin crew, who are threatening industrial action over new working practices proposed by the company, have vowed not to go on strike over the Easter holidays, according to the Independent.Blackstone, the private equity giant, is throwing its might behind a new bank to compete with Britain's high street lenders. The US firm is launching The Home and Savings Bank to tap into public discontent with Britain's banks, says the Telegraph.The head of Britain's biggest bank has criticised the Government's handling of the economy and called for austerity to get the country back on track. The backlash against bankers by politicians and the media had been inappropriately severe and was leading to an exodus of talent from Britain to more lenient countries, such as Switzerland, Mike Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, said, according to the Times.GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical group, pledged to price its experimental malaria vaccine at just above cost, in an effort to ensure funding for its widespread use at a time of growing nervousness over donors' willingness to support global health projects, writes the FT.New chief executives at two of Wall Street's biggest firms promised to reform bankers' pay, with more bonus money being deferred and subject to clawbacks should trading bets go wrong. But both James Gorman, newly installed boss at Morgan Stanley, and Brian Moynihan, at Bank of America, which owns the historic investment bank Merrill Lynch, revealed increases in bonus payments to staff for 2009, reports the Independent.President Barack Obama is set to toughen his approach to Wall Street regulation on Thursday, announcing limits on the size of proprietary trading operations in the second broadside against banks this month, according to the FT.The ultimate cost to the taxpayer of bailing out the insurance giant AIG could be less than first feared, it is emerging. The New York Federal Reserve, the arm of the US central bank, which directed the rescue, could reap $9bn (£6bn) in repayments if a deal to sell one of AIG's biggest divisions goes ahead as planned in the coming weeks, writes the Independent. China's economy grew 10.7 per cent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier but the strong growth was accompanied by higher inflation, raising fears that Beijing may introduce stronger measures to avoid economic overheating, reports the FT.YouTube has sealed a deal to show Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket live online , "the next frontier" for events streamed over the internet, says the Independent.